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Autori principali: Chang, Christopher, Farmer, Benjamin, Fowlie, Andrew, Kvellestad, Anders
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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Accesso online:https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.08157
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author Chang, Christopher
Farmer, Benjamin
Fowlie, Andrew
Kvellestad, Anders
author_facet Chang, Christopher
Farmer, Benjamin
Fowlie, Andrew
Kvellestad, Anders
contents We rely on Monte Carlo (MC) simulations to interpret searches for new physics at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and elsewhere. These simulations result in noisy and approximate estimators of selection efficiencies and likelihoods. In this context we pioneer an exact-approximate computational method - exact-approximate Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), also known as pseudo-marginal MCMC - that returns exact inferences despite noisy simulations. To do so, we introduce an unbiased estimator for a Poisson likelihood. We demonstrate the new estimator and new techniques in examples based on a search for neutralinos and charginos at the LHC using a simplified model. We find attractive performance characteristics - exact inferences are obtained for a similar computational cost to approximate ones from existing methods and inferences are robust with respect to the number of events generated per point. The unbiased estimator uses a Poisson-distributed number of MC events; it is also possible to construct a biased estimator whose bias decays factorially with increasing number of MC events.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_08157
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Bring the noise: exact inference from noisy simulations in collider physics
Chang, Christopher
Farmer, Benjamin
Fowlie, Andrew
Kvellestad, Anders
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Experiment
Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability
We rely on Monte Carlo (MC) simulations to interpret searches for new physics at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and elsewhere. These simulations result in noisy and approximate estimators of selection efficiencies and likelihoods. In this context we pioneer an exact-approximate computational method - exact-approximate Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), also known as pseudo-marginal MCMC - that returns exact inferences despite noisy simulations. To do so, we introduce an unbiased estimator for a Poisson likelihood. We demonstrate the new estimator and new techniques in examples based on a search for neutralinos and charginos at the LHC using a simplified model. We find attractive performance characteristics - exact inferences are obtained for a similar computational cost to approximate ones from existing methods and inferences are robust with respect to the number of events generated per point. The unbiased estimator uses a Poisson-distributed number of MC events; it is also possible to construct a biased estimator whose bias decays factorially with increasing number of MC events.
title Bring the noise: exact inference from noisy simulations in collider physics
topic High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Experiment
Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.08157